SUNDAY LAW PROSECUTION.
By Editor
THE St. Louis News-Press of the 18th ultimo gives an account of the prosecution by the Rev. E. H. Eckel of contractor Morris and his foreman, who were remodeling the Klos building in that city. The crime with which these men were charged was that of "performing common labor on Sunday." The men pleaded "not guilty," contending that they were putting a derrick in position on that day when there were fewer people on the street, and consequently less danger than on other days. The minister, however, contended that the "men were being worked on Sunday," yet we hear of no complaint from the men. The secret of the minister's opposition was, however, later revealed by himself. He said: "I am acting on principle only, and what I did was deliberately done. Permitting those men to work was a VIOLATION of both human and DIVINE LAW. I object to this law against DESECRATION of the LORD'S DAY being called a 'blue law.' . . . Of course, if the defense of these men is that they are Jews, and hence recognize Saturday rather than Sunday as the Sabbath, there can be no objection then to their working on Sunday, for the laws of the State provide for such exemptions. . . . There are certain kinds of work performed on the first day of the week that we have become so accustomed to that we scarcely notice it, and then again there are other kinds to which we are not so accustomed, and the overhauling of that building yesterday comes under the second head. Besides, it was right in our neighborhood, and was more noticeable on that account." The whole animus of Sunday-law prosecutions is15set forth in this opposition. Pretendedly, it is in favor of the workingman; really, it is in the interests of religion, and because some one's prejudices are trodden upon. "I so desire, you must accede to my request." It is not so much the men who prosecute. Many, if not all of them, think they are doing God service in their prosecutions. They are what devotion to such a law makes them—selfish, intolerant. Religious legislation, if effective, always develops just such a spirit in a much more radical form than that manifest by Mr. Eckels.